How do you get a mobile app for your big idea or business? The solutions to this question is addressed in Mobile Road Map to Success by J.R. Atkins, MBA. “When I first developed this material I was working closely with entrepreneurs developing mobile apps and companies seeking to add mobile apps to their business lines. As I reflect on this content, a few years later, it’s still sound thinking and applicable today.”

One example of continued relevance is the dominance of iOS and Android operating systems over Blackberry, Microsoft, and Symbian. Microsoft still is active on their platform but it just never took off with independent developers who dominate the mobile app development field.

Another example of relevant content is the mobile app development process represented by the flow chart below. I still run across people who say they have an idea for a mobile app but have not taken step one, which is creating a written description.

A third example of continued relevance is the basic cost associated with mobile app development. I would have guessed that this would have changed but, since they are general categories, the price points still hold true.

Even though time has passed and application development has improved, these are still reasonable guidelines to use in early planning. For more details and the rest of the story on Mobile Road Map to Success, check out the book on Amazon.

I look forward to seeing your comments and questions.

J.R. Atkins has been speaking, teaching and consulting on Social Media since 2008. He has a BA in Marketing from Texas A&M University, an MBA from The University of Phoenix, Dallas Campus and is currently pursuing a Masters of Divinity at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. He has published 3 books: Success Simplified, Social Media 2.0 and Mobile Road Map to Success. His company, Something Different Companies, works with churches, individuals and companies to implement effective online communication strategies.

I see smart phones as a must have for most adults who are engaged in business and society. The amount of computing and communication power is necessary for the successful connected life. Check out this article from Desert News on the subject.

“She was asking every day, ‘When can I have an iPhone,’ ” says Rinkus, owner of a public relations firm in the Boston area. “My husband was about to cave and I was horrified.”

Everybody Rinkus knows, she says, has given their kids a smartphone.

“But I know a lot of parents who say they wish they never caved in,” she says.

The tide seems to be going toward universal adoption. Resistance seems futile. The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project reported in May that, for the first time, a majority of adult Americans (56 percent) owned smartphones. Of young people ages 18 to 29, 77 percent of those who make less than $30,000 a year still own a smartphone.

Pew also found recently that 63 percent of adult cell owners now use their phones to go online — twice the percentage of 2009.

And among teenagers, almost 78 percent of them own a phone, with almost half of that group owning a smartphone, according to Pew.

But even with the high percentages, Rinkus and others are confronting the question of whether smartphones are wants or needs.

Clash of worlds

Susan Kuhn, a “technology futurist and digital strategist” in Arlington, Va., says fear is behind much of the opposition to smartphones and allowing kids to have them.

“Information technology is evolving faster than anything in human history,” Kuhn says. “The key is to not just look at the device, but the role it is playing.”

That role includes the different things a child could do with it — such as creating videos, expanding learning, creating websites and content on social networks, or being connected to resources at school.

“Smartphones are going to be very important in the future,” she says. Parents should want their children to master the tool and use it well. Kids are going to grow up in a world of instant communication and ubiquity of information, she says.

“We do right by our children when we help them to grow up able to live in the world that is coming for them, the world of the future — not the world that we are comfortable, the world of what we grew up in.”

Already connected?

Rinkus, however, thinks kids are connected. “If kids have access to computers, iPods, library computers and school computers,” she says, “then why the heck do they need it in their pocket while they are waiting for the bus?”

But smartphones can be used for far more than killing a few idle moments while waiting for a bus. A recent study by Jumio, an online verification and mobile payments company based in Palo Alto, Calif., found that people are using their smartphones just about everywhere and during everything.

People admit using them in movie theaters (35 percent of smartphone owners), during a dinner date (33 percent), at a child’s or school function (32 percent), in a place of worship (19 percent), while in the shower (19 percent) and even during, um, intimate times (9 percent). Despite laws and other attempts to stigmatize it, 55 percent admit to using smartphones while driving.

James A. Roberts, a professor of marketing at Baylor University, thinks smartphone use like this is a sign of addiction.

Tipping into addiction

“Cell phone use reaches a tipping point when they pass from being something you like to do to something you need to do,” says Roberts, who is writing a new book titled “Cellularitis: Sleeping with our cell phones.” “People exhibit six symptoms that are classic addiction.”

The first sign, he says, is the salience or importance the smartphones have in people’s lives. Like the Jumio survey, which found that 72 percent of smartphone users are within five feet of their devices the majority of the time.

Two other signs are that the smartphone is being used for mood regulation and people start using them more and more in their lives.

People also have withdrawal symptoms if they have to stop using their smartphones.

“Kids separated from their cellphones get nervous, tense, anxious and almost have breakdowns just like alcohol, cigarettes or coffee addiction,” Roberts says.

Smartphone usage also can cause conflict with others. Roberts says he has had to have students removed from class who couldn’t stop using their smartphones for the period.

And people who try to stop using their smartphones often relapse back into their obsessive habits with the phones, he says.

Setting rules

Rinkus says she doesn’t want her daughter to be like one of her “addicted” classmates who, when asked a question by her history teacher, answered by saying, “Let me Google it.”

“That is so absurd,” Rinkus says, “it makes me so crazy.”

But Kuhn isn’t impressed so much by the addiction claims.

“Addiction?” she says, “Well, then we need to talk about sports maybe. There are all kinds of things people can get ‘addicted’ to. It is not a thing that is unique to technology. … It is falsely giving up human power by giving up tech.”

Kuhn says parents can set limits such as not allowing the smartphone in the kid’s bedroom, limiting use to two hours a day, monitoring how it is being used.

Roberts also recommends rules such as he has used with his teenage daughters including turning off the phones at 10 p.m. and having smartphone-free times, like keeping them off during dinner. Author William Powers takes it a step further, suggesting that peopletake a day away from their smartphones to create more balance between people’s physical and digital lives.

Protecting the future

Rinkus says she wants her daughter, in her free moments, to not turn her head down to a smartphone, but to interact with those around her. Kuhn, however, says kids are connecting to each other, “in a far different way that we did.”

But she also says the connecting does not have to be one way or the other, that it can be both.

“Technology is no harder than a lot of other things that have happened in history,” Kuhn says, “but we put it on this freak-out pedestal. It sort of demeans us to say that we can be undone by a piece of electronics. No. We are much better than that.”

Rinkus, however, isn’t backing down and says her daughter is starting to agree with her.

“My job as a parent is to protect my children,” she says. “Getting them ready for the future means I need to guide them. I’m protecting my daughter. I think she realizes that.”

I saw this article on what Apps get featured on the App Store and thought others would like to see the great research and charts that Dave Addey compiled. Here is an excerpt, click on the lick to see it all. Thanks Dave!

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Over the past few months, I’ve been researching the kinds of apps that get featured on the iTunes App Store home page for different countries around the world. Here are my initial findings.

In this article, you’ll spot certain bits of text highlighted in yellow. Clicking or tapping on these will display extra information about the methodology I’ve used in the reports. You’ll also see bits of text highlighted in blue. These automatically change the relevant graph to show the data referred to by the highlighted text.

Important note: I’ve only been looking at the kinds of apps that get featured on the store. This isn’t an assessment of how many copies of each app are sold, or how much money apps make, or how many apps there are on the store. It’s just about the apps that are editorially selected for feature on the Store’s home page by the App Store editorial team.

Games vs non-games

One of the most notable things about the Store is just how many games get featured. Only 16.8% of the apps on the Store are games, and yet they make up about half of the apps featured on App Store home pages worldwide.

The graph below shows the percentage of unique app features that are / are not games , compared against the percentage of apps on the Store that are / are not games . You can view the results for different stores and different device types using the two drop-down menus in the graph’s title.

The highest percentage overall is in the Republic of Korea, where a whopping 64.4% of features on iPhone are for games. The lowest is the Austria / Germany Store, with only 36.3% on iPhone, although that’s still more than double the proportion of apps on the store overall. One thing’s for sure – games are special.

A recent web search of Mobile App Development returned the following companies. This is a fast developing landscape especially in the enterprise mobile app space. This search was done on 7/6/13 using Google Chrome. Although company names repeat in different categories, some website links vary. One trend I have noticed since entering the industry in 2009 is the emergence of major software companies in the Mobile App Development space.

“South by South West Version 2 Vegas” at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

SXSW V2V offers innovators and entrepreneurs across all creative industries a space to learn the skills, make the connections and find the inspiration to take their ideas and talents to the next level. Join over 1500 thought leaders for this first ever SXSW event in Las Vegas.

The startup and venture capital space is of major interest to all the creative industries that are at the core of the SXSW family of events. Featuring four days of informative panels and workshops, inspirational speakers, intensive mentor and coaching programs, networking events and receptions, pitch competitions and startup showcases. If you are involved in building an app, a service, a business, a brand or a community, then this event is for you.

Join SXSWv2v August 11 through August 14, 2013 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada for extension and re-imagining of the legendary SXSW Austin experience with an emphasis on the creative spark that drives entrepreneurial innovation. Learn more about this exciting event at sxswv2v.com. ($895.00 +travel & meals)

If you are interested in a guided experience by an industry leading technologist, reach out to jratkins@SomethingDifferentCompanies.com. You will have a personal escort to panel discussions, workshops and other events who will add context to the discussion, who can relate the topics and technology to your business, as well as help you make the most of your time and interest. (call for pricing, 214-707-1705)

Because if a picture is worth 1000 words, a video is worth 100,000 or 1,000,000 words. It’s the next best thing to being there. If you are fond of saying “when people meet with me they buy” or when someone understands what we do, they buy, or give, or join us … then video communication is for you.

The least expensive and quickest way to share video is to shoot and post from your smart phone. You can do this by using your phone’s camera and mobile apps to share such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and others.

Short videos, about 60 seconds, generate interest and are easy to share if they are entertaining, informative or news worthy. Long videos, about 2 minutes to 20 minutes, are great for “how to” help. This is how my son and I learned how to change the oil on his motorcycle.

To get the word out, I recommend companies use email and social media to provide a link back to their video content. It also helps to explain the video in the email or social media post so the person gets the message even if they do not watch your video.

Good luck using video. I look forward to hearing how you are using video to generate results.

The Wall Street Journal today summed it up well stating that the Mobile App business is booming 5 years after Apple launched the App Store. Read the some of the details below or see the full article at the Wall Steet Journal.

Apps Rocket Toward $25 Billion in Sales

Players in Quickly Growing Business Scramble to Figure Out Best Ways to Attract Users and Turn a Profit

The mobile apps industry is booming, with Google and Apple now offering more than 700,000 applications each in their respective stores. But for every Instagram, there are thousands of duds. The WSJ’s Jessica Lessin tells us what makes an app successful in today’s competitive market.

Nearly five years after Apple Inc. AAPL -2.42% kicked off the mobile-apps craze, the industry is booming.

App stores run by Apple and Google Inc. GOOG +1.90% now offer more than 700,000 apps each. With so many apps to choose from, consumers are estimated to spend on average about two hours a day with apps. Global revenue from app stores is expected to rise 62% this year to $25 billion, according to Gartner Inc. IT +2.27%

The apps industry has matured in some respects. Some of the Wild West tactics of five years ago—like scams to accrue more downloads—have given way to more order as Apple and others tighten their rules. App developers are more methodical about marketing their apps and focusing on the few apps that work best.

What’s Your App?

Business leaders, athletes and entertainers share their favorite smartphone and tablet apps.

WSJ’s Spencer Ante takes a look at the explosive growth of smartphone, tablet and smart TV apps and how Google’s Android apps have given Apple a run for its money. Photo: Google, Inc.

How big of a money maker are apps? What country’s GDP is the size of the global app economy? How does app use compare to TV in terms of time spent per day? WSJ’s Jason Bellini has answers.

For every Instagram, the wildly popular photo sharing app that Facebook Inc. FB -0.22% bought for $1 billion last year, there are hundreds of thousands of apps that don’t catch on.

As the battlefield shifts to new geographies, new categories and new devices, developers are still trying to figure out which business models are the most profitable.

The apps industry “is like cars at the turn of the last century,” said Simon Khalaf, chief executive of mobile analytics firm Flurry Inc. “You see the growth of roads and know they’re going to be big. But it is still early days.”

TinyCo Inc., a San Francisco-based game maker that released its first mobile game in 2010, is experiencing both the promise and the perils of the apps industry. Today it has 13 mobile games and revenue is doubling. But every day is a battle to acquire users, said Michael Sandwick, manager of strategic partnerships.

The cost of acquiring users through advertising continues to rise by double digits year-over-year, he said, sometimes more sharply when bigger companies seek to introduce a new game. That has forced the startup to better tune its spending based on data about how people are discovering their games.

“There’s an incredible amount of saturation,” said Mr. Sandwick.

Just a few years ago, the apps industry was simpler. In early 2010, Apple’s App Store had a commanding lead with around 140,000 apps for phones. The market was heavily focused on the U.S.

Apple and Google Inc.’s Play store are today neck-in-neck in terms of smartphone apps catalogs and usage, said analysts. Apple still dominates in terms of money made by more than three to one, according to App Annie.

The app boom has spread to markets such as China, Japan and South Korea. That has led to some apps like social-networking service NHN Corp.’s Line leapfrogging U.S. app-makers in revenue by selling virtual items like stickers.

And apps are expanding their reach on devices. They’re no longer just for phones, but tablets and televisions too. The apps are taking advantage of hardware improvements like sensors that can tell an app how fast a person is moving.

In the past two years, consumers have doubled the time spent with apps to about two hours a day, according to Flurry. Yet people churn through apps fairly frequently, making it hard for developers to retain users.

About 63% of the apps used daily now differ from those used daily a year ago. Moreover, consumers focus on a handful—roughly eight apps—at a time.

Michael Duda, a New York-based marketing consultant and investor, said he regularly uses about 12 of the 70 or so apps on his Android smartphone that make his life easier, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Sonos, AmericanExpress and J.P. Morgan ChaseJPM +0.39% .

“A bunch of the apps I downloaded sounded cool,” but he said but most don’t add “utility to my day-to-day life.”

App makers can have a difficult time breaking into a business dominated by incumbents.

Only 2% of the top 250 publishers in Apple’s App Store are “newcomers,” versus 3% in Google’s Play store for Android apps, according to research firm Distimo.

“The bar is so high to build something that is special and valuable and easy to use,” said Jake Mintz, co-founder Bump Technologies Inc., a four-year-old app that lets people share media across phones by touching them. To be more useful, the Mountain View, Calif., company has branched out to share media across laptops too, he said.

Others app makers are coping with the shifting landscape by being more selective about what they build and how they promote their apps.

Michael Bayle, senior vice president and general manager of mobile at Walt Disney Co.’s DIS +0.85% ESPN, said the company recently decommissioned 23 of its 30 Apple apps it had been maintaining, and kept alive its most popular ones.

ESPN dropped an app for Los Angeles sports but kept its popular ScoreCenter app that publishes scores, news and standings from sports leagues, teams and players world-wide.

“It’s easy to make an app but the real expense is in maintaining it,” Mr. Bayle said.

Some app companies are scrambling for new revenue streams and expanding beyond the current leading money pots: ads and in-app purchases.

When music-discovery app Shazam Entertainment Ltd, introduced its first cellphone app about seven years ago, its main revenue came from deals with mobile operators and licensing its audio-recognition technology.

Today it has five revenue streams, including selling ads in apps, a paid premium version of its app and charging television advertisers to integrate Shazam campaigns.

“We have seen revenue drivers change over the years,” said chief revenue officer Doug Garland, declining to comment on its results. “We are figuring out where the best opportunities are and doubling down.”

Hey what are you waiting for? Building your own simple Mobile App is easy now with a tool called Yapp App. Granted it may not be as dynamic and complex as Facebook or Angery birds, but you can have an App for your:

Events

Gatherings

Groups

Fundraising

Here is a segment from their website:

At Yapp, our mission is to empower people to interact and express themselves. We aim to do this by democratizing the creation of mobile apps so that anyone – even if they lack technology or design skills or resources and time – can create a mobile app for parts of their lives that matter to them.

We believe that app creation is something that anyone should be able to do and everyone will do, but don’t believe one platform can create apps for everyone. The needs of IT departments, brands, SMBs and consumers are very different.

We aspire to make it fun and simple for consumers to create a beautiful, content centric mobile app, or in our case, a Yapp. Yapps are user created, themed, customizable, mobile experiences that can be updated in real time and do not require their own binary.

As I am often in discussions about Mobile App Development, the question of how to monetize an App is frequent and opinions vary. So when I saw the Blog “MBA Mondays: Revenue Models – Advertising” I thought it worth sharing with my community. It is written by Fred Wilson a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures. I have included an excerpt below and a link to the original article.

It is true that the vast majority of consumer web apps have been and continue to be monetized with advertising. On mobile that is less true, but becoming more true every day.

There are all sorts of ways to generate advertising revenue online. Here are the entries under the advertising category in our revenue model hackpad:

This list is most certainly not exhaustive but it does cover the most common advertising approaches and you can see how many there are on the Internet. There has been a lot of innovation in this sector in the past 18 years since the first banner ads were created and sold.

Meet my friend Bob Knorpp. Bob produces a podcast that is recorded on Sunday nights and released every Monday covering current topics in Marketing, Advertising, Sales, Technology, New Media, Design … you get it, all the cool and fun things. In episode 211 “Everyone else is Lying” you will hear some discussion on Mobile Apps that I hope you find interesting and informative. Click on the link below, listen and let me know what you think.